Raised upon a farm one of my summer jobs, both paid and unpaid, was making hay. I most often mowed and then raked the hay into rows once it was cured. Raking becomes much more stressful when you have a baler working just behind you as shown in the photo above — the raker has to make two laps for every row while the baler only does one and it’s consider bad form if the baler has to wait on the raker. :-)
Most of my youthful hay making involved those small rectangular bales you had to get up and under cover by hand before it rained. Only in the last couple of years of my hay making experience did these wonderful big “waterproof” bales come along and reduce the labor required.
Memories called me to pull over and make these photos. It seems a fitting subject for the American “Labor Day” weekend.
Earl, are you memories of making hay good one on bad ones?
Good question, Steve. It was certainly hot and dirty work. I also had to take over the counter allergy meds which left me feeling drugged. However, all those bad experiences have been “watered down” over the years since to leave me with basically good memories. I remember always feeling a sense of accomplishment completing work such as this. I can’t say this has been true of all my jobs since then. :-)
Looks like good memories but a lot of work.
Ken, yes, lots of work and a mixture of memories as I explained to Steve above. Thanks.
Interesting that the raker had to keep in front of the bailer. It would seem that raking would be a job done on foot. I hope that you got a decent head start, like a couple of days! :D
Yikes! Sounds like a bit of a job.